LET THE FLAMES BEGIN

Some say the war will end when the fire dies out, the cherry blossoms stop falling and the hurricane ceases to exist.

A four shot collection focusing on the primary deaths of three characters and a finale of life after the war.

Primary Death File: Uchiha Sasuke.

Chapter 1: Explosions

'So watch them fall with you, in slow motion,

I pray that you find peace of mind,

And I'll find you another time –

I'll love you…another time.'

There was always a kind of velocity involved with waking up and knowing exactly what had happened to you before you fell asleep. Of course, the term sleep being used in the very literal sense. Dead. Or at least, she should have been. Sakura lifted her arm, slowly, heavily off the ground and to her chest where she was impaled by Madara's wood jutsu. She flinched slightly as her fingers skimmed the exact spot, her chest was open to the touch and the hole non-existent. She knew someone must have healed her during the time that she had fallen unconscious. There were no sounds around her. The clearing, where the final stage of the battle was taking place, was deathly quiet. Her lids fluttered before they opened, staring up at the blurry grey-blue sky. Sakura didn't move, she stayed still only breathing and staring up at the sky as if it had some answers for her and once her vision cleared, she knew that it didn't.

To her left, there was a strange gurgling sound. Somehow familiar, it made her turn her stiff neck in the direction. She saw the blood, half-dry yet still wet on the sole of a shoe, closest to her. A katana glinted just a little off. It took her a second to realize she'd seen it before. Memorized its shape in her mind. The Kusanagi blade. Her eyes shot back to the shoe and back to the katana. Sasuke wouldn't leave it behind.

"Sasuke-kun?" she heard herself whisper, a note of desperation to her voice. She was answered with silence that only just made her relax when another gurgle erupted from the body. Sakura shot up so fast that a terrible pain shot through her chest, making her cry out – or maybe it was because of Sasuke, who was staring up at her through dull, dark eyes. As if the light was slowly fading from them.

"What are you doing?" she whispered, crawling closer, her hands glowed green as she placed them on his chest. "You're not supposed to be left behind, here with me. You're the genius, remember? The prodigy."

Sasuke's lids closed and opened slowly, as if he, too, had remembered their Genin days in that moment. "Aa…" he murmured.

"Come on," Sakura said, and laughed weakly. "Naruto's probably waiting for you to make some grand entrance and save him just in time." Sakura told him, tugging on her last drops on chakra. She knew that she couldn't possibly save him with what she had left, but giving up just wasn't an option.

"What are you doing?" she asked again, not expecting an answer, as she clenched her eyes shut, pushing more and more chakra out.

"Just let me go," Sasuke whispered and Sakura's eyes shot open. "No, Sasuke-kun, no. If I just do that, it'll be like suicide. And that's not a very honourable way to go."

"There's nothing honourable about me. Nii-san was the honourable one." He tells her, and then his dark eyes met hers. "I was always meant to die here, Sakura."

"No," Sakura said, shaking her head. "I won't let you." She half-screamed through clenched teeth, the green chakra on her hands was already growing faint but Sakura forced even more out. Sasuke watched blood trickle from her nose, down her lips and teeth and over her chin, dripping down and mixing with his.

"Stop," the words were so weak she wondered how he'd managed to get them out. "You'll die if you don't."

"I don't care." Sakura snapped, her voice sounding pained.

"Thank you…"

Sakura's eyes moved from her hands to his face. "For what?"

"That I can…" he coughed terribly then, blood ran from the corner of his mouth, "be with someone who loves me in the end….I don't feel," again he coughs and Sakura let out a sob, her body wracked with shakes. "so alone." He finished finally.

"Stop it." She cried, looking over his face, Sasuke staring up her, his face almost child-like. "Stop always thanking me. Live, fight and give me something to thank you for." Sakura's chakra began to dim again, but she wouldn't let it, even if she had nothing left, she realized that she would give him her own life if she had to – and she didn't care. A sharp pain ran through her, and she knew that there was nothing left, but she couldn't give up. Not yet. Sasuke couldn't die. A wet hand clutched at hers weakly. She realized with a jolt that her chakra had died, as she stared down at his hand. His blood stained one, matched with hers.

"No…" she whispered, watching their hands shake violently not sure which one of them was shaking more.

"Sakura."

Frantically, her eyes find his. "I forgive you, Sasuke-kun. I never hated you for what happened-"

"Sakura…"

"In fact, I hated myself for-"

"You were the…only one who cared about…me," his body shook hard on his next cough and Sakura knew what was coming. "To…save me…from my darkness." As he stared up at her, she saw his fear in his eyes.

"I won't leave you." She whispered, gripping his hand.
His lips moved, but no sound slipped from them.

Sakura leaned down pressing her cheek to his. "Sasuke-kun. I'm here. I'm here." She murmured through her tears, pressing a kiss to his cheek. She put her free hand around him, holding him to her. "I won't leave you." She whispered, kissing his cheek again.

"I could have loved you…like that, eventually." His raspy whisper echoed in her ear.

She wasn't sure if he'd only said it for her benefit but it hit her hard. "I would have waited for you for as long as it took, Sasuke-kun."

"Say it again," he hissed into her ear and Sakura looked up at him. His eyes struggled to stay open as they moved over her pale, tear-stained face. Slowly, she pressed her lips to his. "I love you more than anything. If you are by my side I will make sure that you don't regret it, I will make every day more enjoyable and you will be happy. I would do anything for you. That's why…I beg you, please stay here." Sakura screamed the last part through her tears.

"Thank you." And then he let out a rattling breath.

Sakura's head snapped up, but Sasuke was utterly still beneath her.

She froze, gasping in rapid breaths.

"You bastard!" she screamed at him through her tears, setting her free hand on his chest again.

"No, no, no, no…!"

"I'm a medical ninja. I can do this, this is what I trained for. How can I save anyone if…if…" her burry vision found their clasped hands. And for a moment, all she could do was stare. She remembered the first time she saw him, the first time she realized that what she felt was more than a crush – somewhere between the Forest of Death and Orochimaru's attack. Where she'd realize being with him would come with so much darkness and she had made the choice to accept that, to have all of him. When she'd woken up on the bench, his thank you echoing in her ears, exactly as it did now. To the first time she saw him, so high above them, a dark silhouette that she instinctively knew was him. His eyes the moment that he'd grabbed her throat, how, for a second – they'd searched her face before he aimed to strike. The way he'd looked at her almost proudly when the seal appeared on her forehead. To his almost confession of eventually.

Sakura screamed, a long, horrible, painful sound filling the clearing that seemed to go on and on. Rain poured down over them, washing away the grime and the dirt and the blood and mixing with her tears that seemed would never end. Her hand held his hard, keeping her conscious. Her sobs were drowned out by the rain to where only she could hear them. When she finally fell back, she didn't hit the ground. Someone caught her, as he had caught Sasuke and Naruto before.

"We did it, Sakura. We won." Kakashi told her, holding her up. His voice sounded rough with emotion, but Sakura only cried harder.

In time, Naruto arrived, worn and wet, he pulled her into his arms. His tears seeping into her shirt while Kakashi watched over them.